SOMETHING TO SAY THAT WE MUST ALL HEAR

very fine actors Inaamulhaq and Sharib Hashmi helps give their relationship a heft and resonance we seldom see in cinematic friendships. The course of their friendship, as it is challenged by devastating communal issues, runs through the narrative with vigorous fidelity, found to be absent in other plot points of this film.

For instance, the political goon Munna (Pawan Tiwari) is written purely as a radical villain with no dimensions. Perhaps, the director has taken on more than he can handle. The burden of bringing together so many issues with such thundering ramifications is not an easy task. And well, who said life can be easy? Several episodes do appear to lack subtlety, a quality in short supply when a society is rapidly running out of excuses to stay together.

The third remarkable character and performance in this uneven yet persuasive drama of prejudice and redemption is the temple head priest Vedanti, a pacifist who believes all religions must be respected. As played by the ever-powerful Kumud Mishra, Vedanti is a compelling force of secularism whose politics of communal harmony is so raw it leaves us wounded. Mishra's performance reminded me of Pankaj Kapur in Bhavna Talwar's Dharma

Nakkash

STARRING: Inaamulhaq, Sharib

Hashmi and Kumud Mishra

DIRECTOR: Zaigham Imam

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Set in Varanasi, Nakkash takes us into the uncomfortable and ruinous realm of the communal divide. It steps in its thorny theme without prejudice and with complete awareness of going down a road that offers no solace from the harsh sun.

There is a liberating sense of innocence in Zaigham Imam's tale of worship and duplicity, of politicians and priests, and the uneasy alliance between politics and religion, of single parenthood and post middle age marriage.

Above all, Nakkash is the tale of friendship between two men of lowly means. Allahrakha (Inaamulhaq), a craftsman who carves figures in gold on temple walls, is a single father who is raising his little son with the help of his best friend Samad (Sharib Hashmi).

It is heartwarming how the little boy refers to his father and his father's buddy as ‘Abba' and ‘Ammi' without any sexual connotations attached to the endearment.

That the two roles are played by two

FUNNY… NOT

But then it's a free world. And nowhere is the world freer than on the Internet where anyone can do anything with no fear of repercussions.

You may want to know why this film is titled Chopsticks. For the answer, you have to sit through the entire unfunny rom-com, or you may please refer to the heroine who is a ‘poverty tourism’ guide and speaks Mandarin fluently. Slow clap for Mithila Palkar for learning a foreign language to be part of a script that is as inspired as Whatsapp group chats, and that's a compliment to the film.

CHOPSTICKS (NETFLIX)

STARRING: Abhay Deol, Mithila Palkar and Vijay Raaz

DIRECTOR: Sachin Yardi

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There is a vast difference between smart cinema and smartass cinema. The latter is designed by people who think they are funny, smart, sassy and hip when they are none of these.

Chopticks, sadly, belongs to the latter category of wannabe cinema that doesn't know where it wants to be, or why it is seeking to prove its credentials as cinema in the first place, when in fact it could have easily been a short film, if anything at all.

Abhay Deol returns to acting after quite a while. He looks bored, unconvinced and unconvincing. I don't blame him. If I had to play this role, I'd ask for extra money every day just to drag myself to the set. Deol plays a parttime cook and full-time crook nameddon't laugh - ‘Artiste’, who helps a young lost girl find her brand new car after it is stolen from a crowded temple by a thief

Nakkash is a film with lots of jagged edges. The politics of communalism that the writer-director so forcefully derides, tends to render the narration shrill at times. But the rough edges never wound the film's honest intentions.

The three principal performances stay with us for their honesty, integrity and a representational resonance that doesn't take away from each character's individuality.

This is a film that has something very crucial to say. We better listen before it's too late.

Subhash K Jha

posing as a Good Samaritan.

Incidentally, the actor playing the brief role of the car thief was funnier than the entire film put together. That could be because the scriptwriter's sense of humour seems as bland as the food that Deol seems to be making in the fullyfurnished kitchen of a half-constructed building.

Now try this from the laughter menu. A goon (Vijay Raaz who specialises in playing flipped-out goons) obsessed with a goat, makes one of his debt defaulters sing his favourite song Zindagi ek safar hai suhana repeatedly in lieu of payment.

There are blander jokes here, waiting to explode on the unsuspecting viewer. The one bright spot is the vivacious and spontaneous Mithila. To her role as the waif-like fish-out-of-water Mumbaikar named Nirma (hence, a flurry of detergent jokes), she brings an honesty and verve clearly missing from the film that takes its attempts at levitation too seriously.

Subhash K. Jha